"Poggio Bracciolini, of Florence, born in 1350, has left interesting records of the ancient marbles which he collected during his travels in centreal and southern Italy. He speaks of a room in his museum entirely filled with busts, all noseless save one ... which shows that the disfigurement of statues and heads is the work of the Romans of the decadence, and not the work of the Middle Ages, as commonly supposed."

   Rodolfo Lanciani,
              Ancient Rome in Light of Recent Discoveries (1888)